Chapter 34
The year Chen Mian graduated, Dylan suggested organizing a camping trip in the countryside.
Several close friends of Zhou Zhixun and Chen Mian were invited.
The campsite was located in a private resort, with crystal-clear rivers and pristine forests, no tall buildings around, open views, and fresh air.
Dylan selected and purchased all the equipment, including tents, tarps, and sleeping mats, and had them set up on-site, saving him a lot of tedious steps.
Zhou Zhixun needs to prepare some small items, such as mosquito repellent, sunglasses, sunscreen and other personal items.
The drive takes about three hours.
Zhou Zhixun was driving, and Chen Mian was the only person in the car.
The others were unwilling to be a third wheel for these two.
“Tiara, you’re not allowed to drink any more beverages,” Zhou Zhixun reminded Chen Mian for the third time.
Because he was at home, he intentionally restricted Chen Mian from eating unhealthy things, including carbonated drinks and heavily oiled and spicy street food.
Chen Mian, relying on the fact that he was out and about and that Zhou Zhixun wouldn't spoil the fun, let himself go.
Tiara
Zhou Zhixun emphasized the point.
She has drunk three whole cans of beverages since she got on the bus.
Three cans in total.
I haven't said I want to go to the bathroom yet.
"Okay, okay," Chen Mian reluctantly put down his hand that was fiddling with the pull tab on the can. "I just touched it, I didn't say I wanted to drink it."
"You said the same thing half an hour ago."
"Really?" Chen Mian pulled her coat up a bit. "I don't remember," she said shamelessly.
"Are you cold?"
Zhou Zhixun noticed her subtle movements, reaching out to test the direction of the cold air, making sure it wasn't blowing towards the passenger seat. However, he still turned the paddle shifters all the way towards himself.
“No, it’s a bit sunny,” Chen Mian explained.
"Would you like to sit in the back?"
"don't want."
Are you hungry?
I'm not hungry.
"There are small cakes in the back, you can eat some."
Chen Mian found it, scooped up a spoonful and fed it to Zhou Zhixun, "Zhou Zhixun, how about I open it?"
Zhou Zhixun glanced at her silently.
...
In his junior year, Chen Mian got his driver's license and volunteered to drive himself to and from school. At that time, Zhou Zhixun happened to be out of the country due to some matters.
He thought that driving wasn't difficult, and Chen Mian had just learned to drive and had spent more than a month at the driving school familiarizing himself with the car after buying it, so there shouldn't be any problems.
As a result, a big problem arose.
Chen Mian was driving a pink Porsche, a practice car, not very expensive, costing just over a million yuan. She drove cautiously, neither too fast nor too slow, and on her first day, she encountered a series of traffic jams and malicious cut-offs.
She thought that even if the car wasn't expensive, it certainly couldn't be considered a cheap car. Based on her understanding, drivers in the same lane wouldn't be so reckless.
For ordinary people, a minor scratch could wipe out half a year's salary.
But! She didn't know if she had been cursed, but although she was cut off by another car on her way there, at least nothing went wrong, and she arrived at school safely.
On his way back, he encountered another car that maliciously cut him off. It happened to be rush hour, and Chen Mian made a mistake in the chaos, crashing into the sidewalk railing.
But this is by no means her problem.
It was indeed because the driver in the middle lane kept swerving into her lane, constantly driving in an 'S' pattern to put pressure on her. Not only that, the car in the middle lane also lurched out of its lane, and the two cars collided.
Chen Mian opened the car door in a state of agitation.
It wasn't about the money; it was that if Zhou Zhixun found out, she would be finished and could never touch a car again.
The only place you can try to get one is at an amusement park.
One-time pleasure.
A middle-aged man stepped out of the white Jaguar. He wasn't short, but he was fat. He had a cunning and glib look to him.
What are you doing?!
Chen Mian immediately launched into a tirade, yelling, "What are you doing driving? Why are you always glancing at me like that? Do you even know how to drive?!"
It's really delaying her from enjoying her single life when Zhou Zhixun isn't home after school.
She hasn't been alone in a long time!
The middle-aged man in the white collared short-sleeved shirt smiled insincerely, clasped his hands together, and apologized repeatedly, "Oh dear, I'm so sorry, beautiful lady, are you alright?"
For some reason, Chen Mian doesn't feel offended when her peers or shop assistants call her "beauty." On the contrary, she sometimes feels smug, as if others really call her that because of her appearance.
But being called that by the man made her feel disgusted.
If it weren't for the fact that he had to wait for the traffic police to handle the accident, Chen Mian wouldn't even want the car anymore; he just wanted to leave as soon as possible.
The middle-aged man lurked behind the car, scrutinizing Chen Mian and concluding that she was a rich and beautiful heiress, but with a bad temper.
I speak very bluntly, but that's okay, I can change that.
The man in white took a few steps closer to Chen Mian and said apologetically, "Beautiful lady, how about I add you on the phone? If there's any problem with the car, it's my responsibility to come and help you deal with it."
"It smells so good," the man in white thought, "I've discovered another good thing about it."
Chen Mian wanted to wait inside the car, but he was worried that the collision might cause other hidden dangers. He could run faster outside the car.
“No need,” Chen Mian said, taking a few steps back.
“Why not?” the man in white chuckled. “Whose money isn’t money?”
Finally, he said something that was somewhat acceptable. Chen Mian sighed and resigned himself to his bad luck, "Really, it's not necessary. You can go through the insurance company. Even if there are extra fees, you won't need them."
Anyway, she probably won't drive this car anymore.
"Beautiful lady, are you still in school?" the man in white suddenly changed the subject. "Where are you studying?"
Chen Mian didn't want to go back, so he stood there silently, anxiously wondering why the traffic police hadn't arrived yet.
I checked my phone and less than ten minutes had passed.
“Studying must be tiring,” the man in white said again. “I also graduated from a prestigious university and now I’m a senior executive at a private company. If you want to intern here in the future, you can contact me.”
"..."
"I live in XX. You can come and visit when you have time. You can take a boat ride there."
XX, an unfamiliar place name, seems to be in a bustling area.
As he spoke, the man in white took a few small steps closer to her, "Beautiful lady, what's your name?"
"Can you shut up?" Chen Mian suddenly said. "I'm annoyed. Can you just shut up for a bit?"
The man in white chuckled a few times, while secretly plotting his next move.
Suddenly, Chen Mian's phone screen lit up.
Caleb: Ms. Tiara, where are you now? Is it a convenient time to take this call?
broken.
Seeing her expression change, the man in white said leniently, "Your family found out? It's alright, I'm here for you."
Tiara: Convenient.
The next second, the phone rang.
Caleb: "Are you safe now? Are you injured?"
Tiara: "Safe? No. How do you know? Does Eli know?"
Caleb: "I was just about to tell you about this, sir. I wanted to ask about your situation beforehand. Please wait here for a moment. Luna will come to pick you up, and a specialist will handle the rest. Don't worry."
Tiara: "Thank you, sorry to bother you."
Caleb: "My responsibility"
The man in white watched her speak a string of foreign words and then hang up the phone. His eyes lit up even more. "Beautiful lady, let's add each other on WeChat."
He brought it up again.
"No need, someone will handle this later, you don't need to contact me."
The phone rang again.
Chen Mian answered the phone, and before the other end could speak, he preemptively said, "Sorry, I apologize."
Zhou Zhixun was so angry his head was throbbing, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything harsh to Chen Mian. "Are you alright?"
"Um."
"Were you scared?"
"without."
"You're not allowed to drive anymore."
"Um."
Are you hungry?
"Um."
"Go eat something first, don't worry about it, Luna will contact you when she arrives."
"Um."
"Say you love me."
"Love you."
After hanging up the phone, Chen Mian packed his things and planned to find a restaurant nearby. The man in white, still determined to steal, followed him, but was stopped by the traffic police who had just arrived. They told him that he was suspected of dangerous driving and faced detention and a fine.
Afterwards, Zhou Zhixun investigated the entire incident. In addition, the man in white also had to pay a huge amount of compensation, leaving him penniless and unable to drive for a while.
He tried to steal a chicken but lost the rice instead.
...
Chen Mian snuggled against Zhou Zhixun's shoulder and said, "Brother, I love you the most."
"Okay, I love you too."
She never mentioned wanting to drive again.
...
Three hours later, we finally arrived at the resort.
Before getting out of the car, Zhou Zhixun specially brought mosquito repellent and sunscreen, went around to Chen Mian's side, applied them for her, and then let her get out of the car to play.
This was very different from what Chen Mian had imagined about camping.
Take the tent she was staying in, for example. She thought it would be a small, triangular tent where you could curl up inside, but it was bigger than a classroom and fully equipped, even with a double bed and a bathtub.
Chen Mian pointed to the porcelain-white bathtub and asked Dylan, puzzled, "What's this for?"
Dylan: "Eli said you have a habit of taking baths."
"..."
Why would she insist on taking a bath in the middle of nowhere?
Isn't that strange?!
Foreigners can be a bit stubborn, haha.
...
After tidying up personal belongings, it's time to start a fire.
The fire was started with a glass fire pit. The fire pit was not large, and its four sides were made of transparent quartz glass. Its beauty was its greatest asset. When the golden flames danced, it gave people a magnificent feeling of accidentally entering a ball.
The other fire pits are quite simple, just silver inverted triangular cones.
It was evening.
The group of people, each holding a glass of beer, chatted happily.
The fire pit, which had been calm for a long time, suddenly exploded with a loud bang, sending burning wood and charcoal flying everywhere. At the moment of the explosion, Zhou Zhixun threw down the half-empty jar of wine in his hand, grabbed Chen Mian's arm, and pulled him into his arms.
Chen Mian was pulled away by him with a mixture of surprise and doubt.
Suddenly, my mind felt like an old tape recorder, with a dusty, forgotten cassette tape being inserted, and it started spinning and creaking.
...
Many, many years ago, in that devastating fire, she saved a little boy who wasn't much older than her... or perhaps she was saved by that boy.
She remembered that the boy was in a bedroom, not locked inside, but doing his homework there.
The reason she said this was because when she met him, she saw that the boy was still holding half of his homework.
Chen Mian originally intended to run downstairs, but as he passed the second floor, he heard a series of thumping sounds coming from the room near the balcony.
She let her conscience pull her back to save the person who had made the sound.
The fire started not far from that room, only two rooms away. The house was a suite, and the boy's room was a separate bedroom in the suite. The door was unlocked, and for some reason, a heavy low table was blocking the doorway. The boy peeked through the crack in the door with difficulty, and just when he thought there was no way out, the low table suddenly moved a little outward, and a little girl appeared in his narrow, desperate vision.
The fire grew bigger and bigger.
The location is remote, and the fire department is still on its way.
The cowardly and timid rich people would hide far away as soon as they went out.
“Hello,” the little girl suddenly said to the boy, “I’m not strong enough to push the table further away. See if you can squeeze out.”
The boy was behind the door, helping to push it open, trying to move the table a little further for her.
Then he squeezed out from behind the door.
"Hurry up!" He pulled Chen Mian and ran downstairs.
Just as the two were relieved to be saved, a huge landscape painting in the corridor loosened and fell down.
Instead of pushing and shoving each other to avoid each other, they both tried to shield each other with their bodies...
Chen Mian suddenly remembered that in the second before she lost consciousness, she had looked into a pair of deep blue eyes.
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